• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.1-19
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• 2008

This is an empirical study in Korea on the effects of the minimum wage. Based on the survey data of security workers of 132 apartment in Seoul metro area, the study finds that the introduction of minimum wage in this sector in 2007 raised wage by 10.9%, reduced employment and work hours by 3.5-4.1% and 13.5% respectively. This implies a short run wage elasticity of employment of -0.312 but much higher elasticity of work hours of -1.68.

• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.1-34
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• 2016

We estimate the effect of an increase in the minimum wage on employment. In Korea, there is no exogenous variation in the minimum wage across regions or industries. One single minimum wage is applied to every worker in the whole country. In this paper, we exploit arguably exogenous variation in the proportion of workers affected by the minimum wage across worker groups defined by age, sex, education, tenure and establishment size. Using the data from the Survey on Labor Conditions by Type of Employment (SLCTE) from 2006 to 2014, we find that a 1% increase in the minimum wage decreases the full-time equivalent employment by about 0.14%. The effect is heterogeneous across workers; we find the effect is more adverse for female workers, low-educated, younger and older workers, workers with a shorter tenure, and workers in small- and medium-sized establishments.

• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.25-57
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• 2014

Analysing the effects of expanded trade liberalization on the domestic labor market such as the flexibility of employment adjustment and the wage elasticity of employment etc. with industry base data, we get some important results as follows. The speed of employment adjustment in whole industries is turned out to be more rapid on the employee basis than on the whole worker basis. And the speed of employment adjustment is more rapid in the industries with high level of import ratio than those with high level of export ratio. In sum, viewing on the employee basis, the expanded trade liberalization makes the speed of employment adjustment slower slightly in individual industry level, and it is led mainly by the effects of export ratio rising. In case of the wage elasticity of employment, it becomes to be much higher as rates of openness or export ratios go higher, so the environment of jobless growth seems to be much more strengthened in this country.

• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.1-35
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• 2019

This paper compares the effects of income transfer and wage subsidy in a simple general equilibrium model. The redistributive effects of both policies are smaller, the more intensive in low wage workers are the luxury goods production. Wage subsidy contributes more to employment and GDP relative to income subsidy, but its redistributive effects can be smaller depending on the elasticities of labor demand supply. More complete empirical analysis appears due on the effects of both policies in order to design an optimal mix of efficiency and equity.

• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.1-28
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• 2011

This paper empirically tests the theory that labor demand elasticity of unionized firms would be smaller than that of nonunionized firms, using the Korean firms' panel data for 1990-2009. The major findings are the following: First, the estimates of labor demand elasticity of unionized firms are in the range of 0.34-0.49, less than a half of those of nonunionized firms, hence supporting the theory. Second, the unionized firms are more rigid in dynamic adjustment of employment than nonunionized firms. Finally, there are no significant differences between unionized and nonunionized firms in the elasticity of substitution.